The invention is directed to a method for controlling switching-oriented actions in a mobile radio telephone system or, respectively, to such a mobile radio telephone system.
As known, a mobile radio telephone system comprises at least one radio-oriented sub-system with base station controllers and base stations that see to radio connections from and to mobile stations of radio telephone subscribers via an air interface, comprises a switching-oriented sub-system with subscriber data bases and mobile switching centers for line-switched connections and comprises an operating and maintenance sub-system for the administration and control of the devices arranged distributed in the radio-oriented sub-system and in the switching-oriented sub-system - see, for example, “D1-Das Mobilfunk-Netz der Deutschen Telekom MobilNet”, Unterrichtsblätter, Volume 49, Jun. 1996, pages 288 through 297,or “CME-A Total Solution for GSM Networks”, Ericsson Review, Vol. 68, No. 3, pp. 72 through 79. The switching-oriented actions such as, for example, the routing of call connections, the acquisition of call charges, etc., are thereby uniformly initiated for all subscribers, usually on the basis of the subscriber telephone number.
International application WO 95/20299 discloses a GSM mobile radiotelephone system that provides individual subscriber services such as, for example, supplementary services for which the routing of an outgoing call connection is decided by a central subscriber database (HLR) at the request of the switching center. For supplementary services relating to incoming call connections, the subscriber data base supplies additional routing information at the request of the switching equipment, whereby the subscriber database can distinguish between a plurality of routing alternatives according to one version of the method.
The sole possibility of making switching-oriented actions such as, for example, the routing of call connections flexibly available to individual or selected radio telephone subscribers is comprised in making agreements between the operator of the mobile radio telephone system and the manufacture of a system component and of working complicated modifications into the existing method execution. A flexible administration of existing or of new switching-oriented actions potentially involves long waiting times and a considerable outlay of processing capacity for the manufacturer of the system components. This results therein that the realization of, in particular, new demands of the system operators in view of the control of switching-oriented actions such as, for example, the introduction of specific services for selected groups of subscribers and in view of flexibility and expansion of an existing mobile radio telephone system is not possible without added outlay for the manufacturers of the system components.